Chapter 78: The Pseudo-Loli Mythical
"You... how did you guess?" Celebi asked, trembling slightly.
Arthur's reply, however, was something she never expected.
"It was just a random guess. I wasn't certain initially, but seeing your reaction now, I've finally confirmed it. It really was your doing."
In that moment, Celebi froze, stunned.
"How... how could you? You were tricking me!"
She puffed up her cheeks angrily, the antennae on her head twitching rapidly twice. She even seemed aggrieved, floating over to pound Arthur's chest with her tiny fists.
But in return, Arthur instantly grabbed her by the neck with lightning speed.
Bang!
Arthur roughly slammed her onto the ground, quickly pressing his body down on top of her. He used his forearm to pin the area just above Celebi's neck, leveraging his entire body weight, instantly rendering her immobile.
Arthur had just woken up and his body still felt very weak, so for the time being, he could only resort to such methods to restrict Celebi's movement.
Although the posture looked somewhat crude, it was undeniably effective.
No matter how cute Celebi's three-head-tall chibi appearance was, or how adorable her soft loli voice sounded, it was all useless in Arthur's eyes.
He always maintained a degree of vigilance towards Mythical Pokémon.
Not to mention, the one before him was the prime culprit responsible for exiling him two hundred years into the future.
"Wuwu... Help! How could you... help..."
Beneath him, a layer of mist quickly welled up in Celebi's large, blue-white eyes.
But Arthur's heart remained like stone; he ignored it completely.
"Speak! Why did you transport me across time!"
He pressed down harder with the forearm on Celebi's neck, attempting to force her into submission.
However, the situation that unfolded next was entirely unexpected by Arthur.
"Speak! Uh..."
He was forced to stop halfway through his intimidation attempt.
Because he discovered, to his astonishment—Celebi had simply fainted, clean and neat...
She fainted just like that??
He checked again and again, multiple times, ruling out any possibility that she was faking it or acting. Finally, he had no choice but to accept the fact—
Celebi had genuinely fainted.
In that moment, it felt as if a cawing crow flew over Arthur's head, trailing a long string of ellipses behind it.
What the heck is this!
You're supposed to be a Mythical Pokémon, damn it!
Do you have to be this weak?!
Even Suicune back in the day wasn't this embarrassing!
He turned his head to look at Froakie. Froakie was also looking back at him. Man and frog stared at each other, speechless. The atmosphere felt somewhat awkward.
"Ahem, don't just stand there looking. Come over and spit some water on her. Hurry up and wake her."
"Froa..."
Subsequently, the two of them busied themselves on the beach for quite some time before finally managing to wake Celebi again.
Upon waking, Celebi squatted on the sand and, for a moment, cried beautifully, tears streaming down like pear blossoms caught in the rain.
"Wuwuwu, how could you treat me like this? Especially after I forcibly used my power back on the ship to save you! You're mean! You're a bully!"
"..."
Arthur looked at her helplessly, raising his hand several times only to lower it again, finding himself completely at a loss for words.
This atmosphere... why do I suddenly feel like I've become some kind of scumbag heartbreaker?
What the heck...
Honestly, in this moment, Arthur almost felt he would rather face powerful Mythical Pokémon and endure a life-or-death escape than sit here like this.
He was completely inept at handling situations like this.
Yet, what she said made it impossible for him to coldly treat Celebi purely as an enemy.
And just like that, the situation became incredibly awkward...
However, he didn't notice that while he wasn't looking, Celebi, sitting on the ground, had been continuously crying while simultaneously stealing glances at him with her eyes.
She looked just like a mischievous, elfin, naughty girl, her pitiful appearance concealing all sorts of cunning little thoughts.
Only after confirming that Arthur no longer harbored any hostility did Celebi gradually stop crying, blinking her large, watery eyes as she looked up at him.
"You're not allowed to hit me again."
"Okay..."
Arthur, having absolutely no experience in dealing with lolis, could only agree stiffly.
"Pinky swear."
"Okay..."
Arthur helplessly extended his finger, hooking it with Celebi's small, chubby hand and shaking it twice.
As soon as the pinky swear was done, Celebi instantly broke into a smile through her tears.
For some reason, Arthur couldn't shake the feeling that she had planned this all along, but alas, he had no proof.
"Heehee, as a reward, let me tell you a secret. Right now, we share a bond of life and death! If I die, you'll die too. So, you have to treat me better from now on, okay?"
Share life and death?!
Hearing this, Arthur's gaze sharpened once more, nearly frightening Celebi into tearing up again in an instant.
Fortunately, this time Arthur didn't make any aggressive moves.
Because he had also realized it was unnecessary.
This unfortunate girl, despite being a legendary Mythical Pokémon, was currently almost as weak as a Magikarp...
Utterly embarrassing.
"Being forced into a shared fate with me, and losing most of your own power... this is the price you paid for dragging me through time, isn't it? Or perhaps, this shouldn't be called 'crossing over,' but rather a form of 'time exile'?"
Arthur looked at Celebi and spoke softly.
In that instant, Celebi's body, which had just started floating again, involuntarily stiffened.
And Arthur knew he had guessed correctly again.
Ultimately, no matter how harmless or innocent Celebi appeared now, it couldn't change the fact that two hundred years ago, she had stood on the opposing side to Arthur.
Back then, I was probably a thorn in the side of the Mythical Pokémon, wasn't I?
At that time, as a frontline Elite Four member presiding over the southern border expansion of the Skyspire Alliance, Arthur had clashed with more than half of the Mythical Pokémon in the regions surrounding Skyspire. Their relationship back then could hardly be described as harmonious.
Suicune was driven into the mountains by him;
Entei's original crystal tower constructed on the plains was toppled by him;
Moltres was forced by him from the mainland to distant islands far out at sea;
Lugia's former homeland, which included the present-day Crescent Bay Reserve and the entire Ming River Estuary before that, had all been conquered under Arthur's military command.
But he didn't understand.
"Why, though? Why didn't you just kill me back then, instead of exiling me to the present time? The price you needed to pay for doing this couldn't have been small, right?"
According to the research and speculations of human scholars back in those days, Celebi's abilities were normally thought to be limited to observing spacetime, rather than truly allowing free travel through it.
After all, time is one of the most fundamental laws across the multiverse. Even Dialga, hailed as the God of Time on the other side of the ocean, had never demonstrated the ability to arbitrarily send someone hundreds of years into the future.
Celebi's power, according to the researchers' estimations at the time, should have been weaker than Dialga's.
If even Dialga couldn't achieve it, it certainly wouldn't have been easy for Celebi to accomplish.
Therefore, Arthur wanted to know why she did it.
When it came to serious matters, even a pseudo-loli Mythical Pokémon full of cunning schemes and cute tricks had to become serious now. She sat back down obediently on the sand.
"Actually, back then, there were Mythical Pokémon who proposed killing you directly. For example, Auntie Lugia. Her old home was right here in this sea. It was you who led people to conquer this place and took away all her dependents along the coast."
Arthur didn't interrupt or comment.
He didn't deny it, nor did he feel any need for guilt.
On the battlefields of the past, they were on opposing sides; everyone was merely being loyal to their own race and alliance.
Without capturing the Ming River Estuary, the Donghuang Alliance's expansion into the entire South Sea would have been impossible to even begin discussing.
He did not regret participating in that war, even if it meant making enemies of Mythical Pokémon.
Celebi then continued, "But ultimately, you weren't like those villains who subscribed to extreme human supremacy. Back then, you defeated Suicune and Moltres, but you spared their lives. Therefore, some Mythical Pokémon felt that completely destroying you wasn't necessary. Actually, that included little old me~"
Celebi was just about to take credit when Arthur cut her off coldly, "Continue talking. Get to the point."
"Oh..."
Celebi looked aggrieved.
"So, in the end, I took the initiative to observe the future, and finally decided that exiling you would be the best course of action."
"What future did you see?" Arthur was very curious.
"Uh... just the peaceful future, like the present."
"So? What does that have to do with your decision to exile me?"
"I saw two pieces of information from the future: firstly, that we would eventually achieve reconciliation with humans, so there was no absolute need to kill you. Secondly, that you actually weren't that bad of a person; you would be willing to accept such a peace."
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